Fox and Knot Street, EC1M

Place Name

This is approximately where Three Fox Court used to stand after the name of an inn that was here from at least the mid-18thCentury. This street was formed in the late 19thCentury and there have been various suggestions as to the name since there was no Fox and Knot pub, though there was a Fox and Anchor nearby in Charterhouse Street. The more fanciful suggestion is that it took its name from two taverns The Fox and The Knot. Sheila Fairfield in The Streets of London writes: “The knot appears in heraldry; the arms of the Silkthrowers’ Company (1630) had three knots of silk, and the arms of the Long-Bow String Makers’ Company had a knot of bowstrings. Alternatively there may be a link with the sign of the nearby Fox and Anchor: a fox entwined in a knot of anchor cable.” Alternative yet, it may have been the inn sign showing three foxes with their tails tied up in a knot.

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